The Launch of Marriagequality

OK this is going to be a quick post, Mainly because I am tired but also because I am in the middle of a thesis proposal for my masters that is due for tomorrow...(it's only a draft mom, don't worry!). I went to the launch of MarriagEquality today in the Mansion House-Yes I skipped class to go. However I am quiet glad that I did. Sometimes in your life there are moments where you feel that a movement or that something has arrived that you feel will go on and change the world and more importantly change the World which you exist in. I firmly believe that this movement has become embodied in MarriagEquality and it will achieve its aims.

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I walked into the Oak Room this morning and was thinking God I hope they get enough people in to fill all the seats. I guess an empty room always seems harder to fill when nobody is around. I need not have worried though because as the 11am start time approached, not only was all the rows of seats filled, but the spillover was going out into the lobby. The speeches were great and very affirming, as one would expect at the launch of a new initiative such as this. However it was the Rev. Chris Hudson, whose call for those of the Christain tradition not to slink off in the night to have the laws of inequality strengthened. I do have the utmost of respect for this man. I guess it is the fact he is a Unitarian Christian minister who is against inequality, both church and state and is not afriad to speak out. Even though I may still be Roman Catholic and my faith is quiet strong, his message speaks volumes to me.

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I have been part of many movements/groups in the last couple of years-not to the same extent as the level of involvement that was in that room this morning- I can honestly say, today I felt that I was apart of something very very special. Listening to the endorsements and empassioned pleas of the National Women's Council, the Lone Parents Network (ONE), Labour LGBT, Dublin Pride I felt a strange and unexpected sense of pride welling up inside me. I was moved to near tears on a couple of occassions during this morning, I guess that is how emotional the whole event felt for me. It was as if, like I said earlier, that you could feel the ground swell of support for something that is directly affecting people's lives.

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I want Civil Marriage for one reason and one reason only. I do not want to be a second class citizen in my own Republic. I do not want no provision or protections by the Irish state, which comes with marriage, ignored whilst I am offered a seperate but equal 'dog license' proposal. Seperate but equal is not equal. Civil Partnership is not Marriage. I want the oppourtunity to go to my local registery office either in Nenagh or Limerick with my partner. I want to be married in the eyes of the law, the eyes of my family, the eyes of my friends and the eyes of the state. I want that because marriage is stability. Marriage is recognized as a stable unit. I also want the oppourtunity to celebrate my 25th Anniversary like my parents have done this wkd with my partner. I don't think it is a big ask. I don't pay my taxes to have lawmakers lie behind Bunreacht na hÉireann. If you claim the law is incompatible, change the law. If you do not, I will be reconsidering my vote and I will bring my family with me, they will bring their families and so on and you will not be in Government. I will continue to do this until whoever is in Government gives me my basic rights. Besides if Catholic Spain can do it, surely Catholic Ireland should have no excuse.

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The time has come. The time is now. No more excuses.